Service To Our Strikers: Is It That Bad?

[italian dave]

It seems to be the accepted wisdom that our lack of goals this season (and last) is down to the poor service our strikers (or striker) get. Plenty of examples on the forum and overheard at AG of how Rooney wouldn't score for us cos the service is so poor and how its not Dele/Maynard/LT/John/Brooker to blame when the service is so poor.

I include myself as one of those who's been saying that - especially when it comes to our wide players - but I have begun to wonder lately.

18 months ago when we came up to this division we knew that it would be a big step up from L1, and one reason being that in the Championship you get punished for your mistakes (ie give a striker one chance and he'll take it - unlike L1 where they take 1 out of 10) and, equally, you get much better defences so you don't get as many chances and you have to take them when they come. So we knew that would be the case when we got here.

Thinking about our last two home games: against Forest we failed to win for precisely these reasons. We had two great chances in the first half - one to McIndoe early on and the other to Dele, and failed to get either on target. Then there was the penalty. Meanwhile, Forest had fewer chances, but in Tyson especially had a striker on top of his game who put away the one chance he had with some ruthlessness.

Then, Reading. Looking at the match facts in last Saturdays programme, they portrayed a pretty even game. Both sides had much the same number of shots, fouls, corners, offsides etc. The only striking difference was shots on target. Of Reading's 12 shots, they got 10 on target. Of our 12 shots we got just 2 on target.

So it just got me thinking - is the service really as bad as I'd been thinking - or is it just that no-one creates as many clear cut chances in this division, but when you do get one you've got to be more ruthless - and we're not.

What do people think?